Kendra's Hunt
by The Evil Author
Summary: Kendra plays a deadly game of hide and seek in the jungle. Originally written in 1999.


Title: Kendra's Hunt  
  
Author: Nopporn Wongrassamee aka the Evil Author  
  
EMail Address: EvilAuthor@aol.com  
  
Archive: Anywhere and everywhere. Just tell me if you do.  
  
Spoilers: What's My Line, Innocence  
  
Summary: Kendra plays a deadly game of hide and seek in the  
  
jungle.  
  
Disclaimer: All characters belong to their respective owners.  
  
It's another crossover. Yadda, yadda, yadda...  
  
April 1997  
  
Maybe Buffy was right, Kendra mused. If she had simply flown  
  
like any other airline passenger, Kendra would probably be  
  
home now reporting to her Watcher, Sam Zabuto, about her  
  
latest slaying. Instead she had decided on stowing away in the  
  
cargo hold and wound up taking the wrong plane.  
  
From her hiding place, Kendra watched triangle of red dots move  
  
across the jungle folliage. She knew what it was: a targeting  
  
laser. Before meeting Buffy, Kendra wouldn't have known that.  
  
Since Buffy had mailed her some fragments of the Judge and a  
  
description of how Buffy had defeated him, Kendra had taken a  
  
crash course on modern weaponry. For all Kendra knew, some  
  
demon might take to using them, and Kendra prided herself on  
  
always being prepared.  
  
Tracing the laser back to the source, Kendra didn't see  
  
anything at first. There, in the tree. A distorting of the  
  
light with a humanoid shape. It was a near perfect  
  
invisibility, but not perfect enough.  
  
The laser dots suddenly swung around right onto a Kendra. It  
  
could see her! Reacting instantly, Kendra bolted. Behind her,  
  
a miniature lightning bolt blasted the ground where she had  
  
just been. Kendra wasn't sure, but she didn't think modern  
  
weapons technology could do that yet.  
  
Dodging through the trees and underbrush, two more lightning  
  
blasts came after her. They struck nowhere near her, only  
  
incinerating folliage. Kendra had no illusions; she knew that  
  
whatever this demon was, it was an excellent tracker. It would  
  
find her again.  
  
But she had a plan for this. She always did.  
  
***  
  
The hunter watched the human run. He doubted that it was a  
  
coward. The hunter knew it was an excellent tracker because he  
  
wasn't sure when the human had started following him. He was  
  
sure that it was after he had successfully hunted three more of  
  
its fellows; their skulls were now in his trophy bag.  
  
Unlike those three, this one didn't appear to be equipped with  
  
those primative projectile weapons. The hunter was experienced.  
  
Just because the human didn't use a weapon didn't mean it  
  
didn't have one. After all, his cloaking system was still fully  
  
functional. The human could have been waiting for a clear shot.  
  
But maybe this human was a fellow hunter. Its tracking  
  
abilities certainly suggested such. But now the human was  
  
running, hunted. It would be fine sport.  
  
Following its heat trail, the hunter moved through the treetops  
  
with practiced ease. He found the human cowering in a bush,  
  
trapped against the bank of a small but fast river.  
  
How disappointing, the hunter thought as it landed on a last  
  
branch. This is almost too easy...  
  
***  
  
The jungle was silent. The wildlife must have sensed something  
  
and wisely decided to lay low. Kendra hid in a bush, and  
  
closed her eyes and *listened*.  
  
Kendra was sure she had read of this demon somewhere before. To  
  
her embarrasment, she couldn't quite remember where. No matter,  
  
she had a fair assessment of its capabilities.  
  
The instant she heard something settle on a nearby branch,  
  
Kendra leaped from her position. No sense sitting still to get  
  
shot at. At the same time, she through a handful of river rocks  
  
and stones with all her might in the noise's direction. In a  
  
Slayer's hand, they were like a shotgun blast.  
  
Only two stones hit, but they were enough. The demon reeled,  
  
it's invisibility flickering out in a shower of electrical  
  
sparks. Kendra got a good look at it. Large, maybe two meters  
  
tall. Mask. Dreadlocks. Yellowish skin. No apparent armor  
  
beyond the natural. A spear gripped in clawed hands. Lightning  
  
spitting in random directions from some kind of shoulder rig.  
  
The demon turned and fled. Kendra followed.  
  
***  
  
The hunter paused in its flight to tend its wounds. The damage  
  
to himself was rather minimal. The projectiles had struck him  
  
in the mask and shoulder gun, damaging both. They were now  
  
useless, so the hunter decided to discard them.  
  
Before he tossed his mask away, he decided to examine the  
  
projectile lodged in it on a whim. Digging it out, he was  
  
amazed to discover that instead of a piece of metal, the  
  
projectile was a pebble!  
  
He was impressed.  
  
He did not tarry long. Knowing that the human was almost  
  
certainly following, he headed off to a place he knew. The  
  
human wasn't the only one who could lay traps.  
  
***  
  
Finding the mask, Kendra paused to examine it. There was a  
  
crack in it where a pebble had struck, right between the eyes.  
  
There was also a hint of some fairly sophisticated electronics,  
  
but Kendra was no expert in that sort of thing.  
  
Discarding the mask, Kendra moved on. She had a demon to catch.  
  
After seeing it, Kendra remembered what she had read about this  
  
demon. They pretty much confirmed what she had observed  
  
already. A solitary hunter that likes to hunt the most  
  
dangerous things it could find. Animals. Humans. Even the  
  
occaisional demon. They were few accounts, but Kendra suspected  
  
that most witnesses didn't live to make any reports.  
  
Out of the corner her eye, something flew at her. Whatever it  
  
was cut through several trees like they were paper. Kendra  
  
barely dodged in time, the thing grazing her shoulder. Blood  
  
welled out.  
  
Damn! Buffy had given her that shirt!  
  
Following the path of collapsing vegetation, Kendra saw the  
  
thing was curving back around toward her. As it burst into  
  
sight not three meters away, Kendra moved, catching it between  
  
both hands.  
  
It was some kind of disc, she saw, with very sharp edges. It  
  
also had some convenient fingerholes, making it a weapon she  
  
could use.  
  
Something landed behind her. Not even turning to look, Kendra  
  
dove and rolled, feeling a breath of air as something just  
  
missed her.  
  
***  
  
This human was good. Better than a good many of the hunter's  
  
fellows. While the disc was only intended as a distraction, the  
  
hunter hadn't actually expected the human to catch it. That was  
  
something only legendary hunters were said to be able to do.  
  
No matter, the disc served its purpose. While the human was  
  
distracted, he dropped down behind it and swung a death blow  
  
with his spear. But the human was too skilled for that; it dove  
  
to the ground and rolled away. In one smooth motion, it was  
  
standing again, in a clear fighting stance, disc in hand.  
  
This would be a hunt to sing about whether he survived or not.  
  
***  
  
Kendra and the demon circled one another, waiting for the  
  
other to attack first. And then they fought. It was a rapid  
  
exchange of blows and kicks. Unfamiliar with the disc, it was  
  
quickly knocked from Kenra's hand. Soon afterward, the demon's  
  
spearpoint was buried in the ground, its shaft broken.  
  
They seperated for a moment, both bloody and bruised. Kendra  
  
absently noted that the demon was a luminescent lime green and  
  
filed the data point in the back of her head. They squared off  
  
again.  
  
A pair of blades popped out of the demon's right wristguard,  
  
and it stabbed them straight at her. Kendra was already moving,  
  
leaping right over the demon and landing behind it.  
  
Being no slouch, the demon spun bringing the blades straight at  
  
Kendra. And Kendra caught the demon's right fist in her left  
  
hand, the blades stopped just pricking her skin.  
  
For a moment, both were frozen in contest of strength. Slowly  
  
and with all the effort she could muster, Kendra pushed the  
  
blades away. She could feel bones grinding together under her  
  
fingers. The demon howled in pain.  
  
In a sudden move, Kendra twisted the demon's arm around,  
  
bringing it's own blades around to gut itself. The demon  
  
howled again before collapsing.  
  
She did it. She had won. But then she was a Slayer after all.  
  
But she was exhausted.  
  
Air shimmered, and Kendra found herself surrounded by more  
  
demons. By their gear, they were obviously the same kind as the  
  
one she had just killed. Wearily, she settled into a ready  
  
stance. So much for being solitary hunters.  
  
Two of the demons came forward to secure their comrade's  
  
corpse. A third, their apparent leader, tossed something to  
  
Kendra. A sword, she saw as she caught it. Definitely of human  
  
origin, maybe fifteenth century.  
  
"Keep it," was all the leader said before the demons all  
  
vanished into the jungle.  
  
As Kendra debated with herself whether she should try following  
  
the demons, something rose above the jungle and blasted off  
  
into the sky, leaving a blinding afterimage in its wake.  
  
Now this was something to tell Zabuto about. Maybe Buffy, too.  
  
Kendra decided to keep the sword. It might be useful someday.  
  
***  
  
Can anyone guess who Kendra's opponent was? 


End file.
